


All the Books in the World (Can't Tell Me How to Love You)

by aurumdalseni (kyo_chan)



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Multi, OT3, Rodansey - Freeform, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:41:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23939317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyo_chan/pseuds/aurumdalseni
Summary: Often the most helpful advice Adam had ever come across seemed prettyunhelpful at first glance, but turned out the most accurate. There wasn’t a single book that could tell you how to love someone. Adam shouldn’t have been surprised when there wasn’t a single book that could tell him how to lovetwopeople at once, but that didn’t mean he didn’t try.Or, Adam and Ronan try to woo Gansey, and it doesn't quite go as planned.
Relationships: Richard Gansey III/Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish
Comments: 3
Kudos: 61
Collections: TRC Spring Fling





	All the Books in the World (Can't Tell Me How to Love You)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [muchlessvermillion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/muchlessvermillion/gifts).



> This is a gift fic for Rafi in the TRC Spring Fling gift exchange! This kind of prompt was so inline with my interests that it was a joy to write, so don't be surprised if more pops up for this AU in the future. I really hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Many thanks to Effwit for the beta!

Their first mistake was thinking they ever needed a plan centered around Gansey being in love with them. When you got right down to it, Adam and Ronan had been shown time and again that Gansey loved them to the ends of the earth and back. He literally died for them, after all. But perhaps what didn’t make it a mistake at all was the fact that thinking they needed a plan in the first place was a blazing neon sign that they wanted to do it right. Sending Gansey off on the road with Blue and Henry felt like the right choice. For all that he’d traveled the world more than either of them, he’d been a caged bird for most of his teenage life, roaming freely on the chase for Glendower, but always knowing the bars were still circled him. Anyone who might say death was freeing didn’t understand the magnitude of it like Richard Gansey III. Rebirth had allowed him to finally just _be_ , and if a cross-country trip to save the world one worthy cause at a time was what he needed, then his friends decided to support it. Worthy causes had Gansey’s name all over them, and traveling would allow him to see the world rather than just hunt in it. 

Adam and Ronan made peace with the fact that, for Gansey, taking the gap year was the right thing to do. 

Feeling their way through being together as more than just friends was tricky enough. They were on a rough expedition of their own to discover that being boyfriends, to them, was startlingly like being friends but with more kissing and touching. Not so bad, but that meant they still fought over dumb things and ultimately sought to understand what it was like in the other’s head so that they didn’t have quite the same kind of fight next time. They still hurt each other, and they still adored one another, and when they reached compromise, hours were spent reaffirming the feel of being alive, touching skin, tasting tongues. It wasn’t perfect by any means, and both agreed it probably never would be, but they still wanted it so badly. This thing that they had was years in the making, supported down to their very bones by the ley lines. Dreams and scrying were just as intimate together as Ronan and Adam’s physical bodies. Equivalent exchange, a deeper understanding. 

“Why don’t we just talk to him about it?” Ronan asked, taking a swig from his bowl-sized coffee mug. 

He watched Adam’s nose wrinkle around the rim of his more sensible-sized cup, knowing the expression before Adam even had to answer. He couldn’t help but notice Adam actually taking his time to consider his answer before giving it, which meant he was getting better at not dismissing something out of hand just because he didn’t agree with it. But it was clear he didn’t agree with it. 

“Have you ever tried talking to him about anything?”

Now it was Ronan wrinkling his nose, “What the fuck kind of question is that? I’ve known Gansey longer than you have.” It was a card he rarely played, but they’d been considering the approach to this very life-and-friendship-changing idea for a few weeks now. 

Adam blinked slowly, but otherwise didn’t seem fazed. On the outside. “Then you know as well as I do that simply talking to him about feelings and relationships is a lot more difficult than it sounds.”

“Here’s the thing about conversations, Parrish. You occasionally have to talk _and_ listen at the same time.”

“That’s rich coming from you. Especially about Gansey and listening.” 

Ronan put down his mug. “Look, you wanna know what your fucking problem was with Gansey?”

“Please enlighten me.”

“Both of you talked, and both of you listened, but you were hearing something else that aligned more with your world view—”

“Did you just use ‘aligned’ in a sentence?”

“— Shut the fuck up, yes. And since you came from opposite sides of a silver spoon, it meant that talking to each other was really the two of you trying to do the right thing and having no fucking clue how to do it without pissing each other off.”

“And this brilliant deduction of yours is fueling a batshit idea to sit down and have a conversation about how he should buck traditional definitions of romance and make a threesome with us?”

“I’m saying that we might want to preface any sudden advances with some kind of explanation or he won’t fucking understand what’s going on.”

On Gansey’s very intelligent cluelessness, Adam and Ronan could definitely agree.

What Gansey taking the gap year had also shown the two of them was that there was a Gansey-shaped hole in their lives when he was half a country away. One that manifested, at first, in jokes bordering on cruel about freedom from under his protective influence. But he was a part of their daily existence, especially that summer. They got folded into a group text laden with photos and Gansey’s excited babbling about the things he was seeing, right alongside Cheng encouraging him and Blue gently chiding him. It was so apparent he wanted to share everything about the experience with Ronan and Adam too, making good on his promise of taking them all with him anywhere he went, even if it wasn’t entirely literal. Ronan always groaned when his phone lit up, but Adam noticed he didn’t wait as long to check it as he tended to do when it was Declan. Messages and calls from Gansey fell somewhere between Declan and Matthew in Ronan’s attention to it, which Adam thought was pretty telling. He belatedly joined the insanity after finally purchasing his own secondhand phone, and Gansey had gotten so excited about it that he called Adam’s new number and talked his ear off for an hour and a half. 

Summer break at Harvard had arrived before they knew it, with the separation of all three of them taking their own unique tolls. Adam returned to the Barns, grateful to fall into Ronan’s arms and not have to worry about leaving them before he’d had his fill. (Truth be told, no amount of time would ever be enough.) Gansey would be returning home in a matter of weeks, which left Ronan and Adam fumbling to figure out how to ask him to stay. For good.

With them.

At this point, it was hard to tell which of them had come to the conclusion first. Adam accused Ronan of missing Gansey, but couldn’t really argue when Ronan told him he wasn’t much better. Conversations evolved into the concept of fantasizing their lives with their third back in it, some that strayed into what most would consider forbidden territory, but felt as natural as ever to them to discuss. They reached a decision in their way of not actually mentioning it out loud, just a mutual understanding that they were going to seduce Gansey, they wanted to seduce Gansey, and it wasn’t going to change how they felt about each other. For someone like Ronan, such a singular and focused boy, grown up around Catholic moors, it was a big deal. And for someone like Adam, who thought he would not only be unknowable, but also unlovable, it was equally a big deal.

“Do you think he’d find it strange?” Adam asked one night. Ronan’s head lay on his chest, and he stroked thoughtfully over the soft buzz.

“That we wanna…with him? Or be with him or some shit?”

“Yeah.”

Ronan’s huff of laughter was warm against Adam’s skin. “There isn’t a thing you could say that wouldn’t convince me he hasn't been fucking around with Sargent and Cheng. Besides, what the fuck does he have to calibrate his strange-o-meter on when he knows people can pull shit from dreams and scry and fight demons? The only way this fucks with his idea of normalcy is that his red tie motherfucker cohorts would shit a brick if they knew what he got up to behind the good grades and politician smile.”

“Jesus, Lynch…”

“Tell me I’m wrong.”

Ronan could — and had been — wrong about a number of things, but even Adam knew this wasn’t one of them. In fact, the idea of Gansey wholly embracing people and practices so against how he was raised delighted Adam down to the bone. In his own way, Gansey had been fighting to get out of his situation as much as Adam had. To Ronan’s point, he’d never given himself a chance to listen and acknowledge that when it was most important, but he could make up for that now. 

“So, we’re doing this.”

“Yeah, we’re doing this.”

/

Adam had spent some of the time preparing for Gansey’s homecoming by reading books. It was his first line of defense in trying to understand something he inherently knew very little about. Ronan still had no idea just how much he’d tried to read up on being in a relationship after being kissed, and would probably laugh if he did. Often the most helpful advice Adam had ever come across seemed pretty _un_ helpful at first glance, but turned out the most accurate. There wasn’t a single book that could tell you how to love someone. Adam shouldn’t have been surprised when there wasn’t a single book that could tell him how to love two people at once, but that didn’t mean he didn’t try. He had a diverse range of facts sorted in his mind, everything from love languages to communication, and he still wasn’t sure he would ever know the _right_ way to let Gansey know he and Ronan loved him 

And so a dinner was prepared, nothing too fancy or over the top. Despite what Gansey had grown up around, they knew that it didn’t take much beyond the simple gesture of having a meal together to please their prospective third. All their Glendower meetings at Nino’s and the convenience store picnics on the hood of the Pig had been more than sufficient to make Gansey happy in the old days. Even Adam had to laugh at the thought; the hunt for Glendower felt like another lifetime ago (sometimes literally) or like it had happened yesterday. If they’d learned nothing in all of this, it was that time was a fickle beast, and made it even more important that they come forward about how they felt. No one wanted to say it out loud, but they didn’t want to take chances with the time Gansey had left. 

Gansey put down his fork, a contemplative knot to his brows while he dabbed at his lip with a napkin. Adam watched the nuances; he’d been watching all throughout the meal for some sign that this was either going really well or horribly wrong so he could gauge his next steps. He also did it because Gansey was lovely to watch, and he’d missed being able to do it. The year of travel had been very kind to him, the sun adoring him as it always had, and the dark circles under his eyes weren’t as severe as Adam remembered. He couldn’t be sure, but he would have sworn there was less hair gel, which was funny when he and Ronan joked about him using more after being exposed to Henry for so long. 

“I’m glad you invited me tonight,” Gansey told them.

Adam didn’t know how much time had passed watching Gansey’s hands by his mouth and now. A quick glance over at Ronan showed him sitting up a little straighter, even if his expression looked absolutely careless. 

“Whatever,” Ronan shrugged. “It’s just dinner, don’t get stupid over it.”

“Mm.” 

Whatever Gansey had been about to add to his gratitude seemed to deflate a little, but just as quickly, the steel came back to his eyes. Adam actually felt a shiver run down his spine at the flare of it. He took a drink of his water while his gaze continued to burn. Adam wasn’t sure whether anyone was supposed to say anything, so he didn’t, but dinner was pretty much not his focus anymore. 

“I’ve decided, in fact, to get stupid over it.”

Now Ronan put down his fork and folded his arms on the edge of the table. Things were already heading far and away from anything Adam had visualized, so he had no idea where they’d end up. 

“You know, before we do that, maybe—” Adam attempted, trying not to cast a helpless look at Ronan, for fear of making Gansey feel like he’d been ganged up on.

“No, no, Parrish, I insist. Please let me, before I lose my nerve. You both mean…so much to me, I can hardly bear to go through with this.”

Despite how well Adam thought he was braced for rejection tonight, he hadn’t expected it to come before he’d even had the chance to ask the question. Nevertheless, it felt impossible to deny Gansey this moment to say whatever was so clearly burdening his mind. It wasn’t that he couldn’t be happy for the way things were with him and Ronan, but they’d come so far in agreeing on this one thing, this one _person_ they both wanted that walking away without it felt painful. 

“I learned some things while I was away, and a lot of it is the stuff they don’t teach you anywhere. About loving people. I could scarcely believe that I could have these things and it wouldn’t be wrong. It’s really not _wrong_ to love more than just one person. In fact, it feels right on a level that Cabeswater felt right. How the magic and the ley lines felt right. And that my heart could belong to more than just Jane.”

Adam opened his mouth, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught Ronan pinning him sharply with a look that clearly said, _Listen_. Gansey wasn’t even looking at them, wringing his hands on the table top. He paused, then let out a shaky laugh.

“You know, forget I said anything. I should—”

“Finish, Gans.” Ronan’s command was stern, and Gansey’s head jerked up.

“They said I should just tell you, as if completely inviting myself into something so unique and special is easy. Well, maybe it would be easy for them, all things considered. But the last thing I want to do is put a rift between the two of you when you’ve both already dealt with the world taking something from you. I can’t bear to hurt you like that.”

Adam was glad he’d stopped eating or drinking anything several minutes ago, because he might have choked. 

“Gansey,” he began.

“I’m sorry,” Gansey blurted out.

“Are you…asking if you can—” A number of descriptive phrases flashed through Adam’s mind like a rolodex, head full of white noise for a split second while Gansey contemplated his hands, now tangled up in his napkin. “—with us?” he finished weakly when none of the options proved to be the right one.

The room fell utterly silent, Gansey’s lowered head only half-hiding some flavor of horror that everything was in the light. Slowly, he nodded once. The silence stretched on and Adam didn’t know what to say in the face of everything. No book could have helped him, no amount of preparation was appropriate for how it _felt_ to be saying the same thing as Gansey without actually saying anything at all. 

Ronan thew his head back and laughed.

Adam and Gansey both jumped, fixing Ronan with a look somewhere between shock and a glare. The nerve of him to laugh at what is obviously a _very important conversation_ , and how dare he be so full of joy when he did it! That made being actually angry with him about it more difficult than it should have been. Ronan laughed so hard his face was wet, and he had his arms wrapped around himself as if he’d come undone with the force of it. Adam thought it would serve him right if his chair tipped over and dropped him on his ass. He rifled through all the conversations they’d had, Ronan’s suggestions, _talk to him_. Adam’s brow furrowed at the same time Gansey’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“You planned this, Lynch,” he said, just as Gansey accused, “Did you know, Ronan?” in his Firm Ronan Tone. 

It took time for Ronan to even get his breath back to parse through what they were implying, and he dragged the heel of his hand over his red, tear-streaked cheeks. “You fucking losers, I didn’t plan shit. You think I wanted to sit through this awkward as fuck conversation?”

“It does seem like you’re the one deriving the most entertainment out of it.”

“Look, just because the two of you still think you need to tiptoe around everything doesn’t mean I have the same problem. The bottom line is, I said we should talk about it, and you literally just stole Parrish’s thunder, which is so like you fucking idiots, it’s just—” He started to laugh again. From the counter top, Chainsaw screeched her matching laughter, and Gansey put his face into his hands.

It was then, while Gansey wasn’t looking at him, that Adam reached out and pushed his fingers into Gansey’s hair. His breath hitched at how soft it was, barely getting tangled up where it had been styled, it gave in easily. Gansey made a helpless noise against his palms and leaned right in. Adam scooted his chair closer so he could actually try holding him. Even after spending months with Ronan, he still wasn’t used to these intimate gestures, and this was new territory. Not that he expected Gansey to react badly, but he wanted to feel out this moment, catalog all the differences and newness. Gansey’s bulky shoulders, and the way his aftershave mixed with sunshine on his skin. He was reluctant to touch Adam back, but finally did. The way he moved to hold Adam was so complete and so Gansey, tucking Adam up to him, nuzzling into the side of his neck so that Adam could do the same, and they could just _breathe_.

“Parrish,” Gansey murmured against his throat. “Adam.”

Adam’s nerves lit up one by one but all at once, leaving him shaking, but digging his fingers hard enough to bruise so Gansey wouldn’t pull away. His name was powerful on Gansey’s tongue, shifting and rearranging things in him to fit properly with what they were trying to reach. Not so different from moving a single stone, dipping his fingers into fresh water, to stir the ley lines. How had he lived with all this latent _connection_ and feared bringing it to life? Adam worked his mouth to say something, anything, but Gansey’s sudden gasp was loud against his good ear. He opened his eyes, and there was Ronan, pressed up against Gansey’s back, laying kisses all along the exposed skin above his collar. He met Adam’s gaze, watching for signs he should stop. Adam smirked at him and started to do the same, thrilling in Gansey’s turn to shake in his arms. 

“Am I…dreaming?” he whispered. 

He started as Ronan dug his teeth in on the side opposite Adam. “That feel like a dream, Gans?”

“Good _God_ , no…I am very much awake. I…don’t know what to do.”

“Welcome to the club, asshole.”

“Rolled out the welcome mat for you and everything,” Adam hummed. 

“Well. I think one of you ought to kiss me properly, lest I worry later that I hallucinated all this after eating Ronan’s cooking.” 

“You little shit.” That seemed to do the trick, because Ronan had shifted so quickly to put his mouth on Gansey’s that Adam barely pulled back in time. 

He kissed Gansey senseless while Adam watched, stirring up the long-term smoldering need to do the same. He didn’t even let Gansey catch his breath after Ronan pulled away to take his turn. With their mouths on one another, time did that peculiar thing it did for the king and his magicians. Not stopping, ever turning, but allowing them to live in a world of their own making. Pieces fell into place, all the right stones moved and seeds planted. Ronan kissed Adam kissed Gansey, hands fumbled, Ronan ended up on the bridge of their interlocked knees, back against the table where they could hold him to them. Tangled, panting and flushed, they all laughed now at the sheer absurdity of their inevitability, how silly it seemed now that they’d ever thought it could be wrong. Messy, perhaps, like so many things in their lives, but with the grace that seemed to follow them in the ebb and flow of the ley lines they’d promised themselves to. It became apparent that they’d promised something more, to each other and without words. They had no idea where they were going from here, nor did they expect it to be easy, but they were on the path now. 

“So...that’s a yes.” Ronan wasn’t quite asking, but it was close enough.

Gansey laughed. “That’s a yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> I would love it if you came to yell at me about Rodansey or TRC over at [my blog](http://oldkingyounggod.tumblr.com)! Thank you for reading!


End file.
